PGY-1

NC is such a lovely place to live – it has great weather, fantastic dining options, friendly people, and is close to the mountains and beach. The reasonable cost of living combined with the competitive salary make it easy to live comfortably. I had a gut feeling after interviewing that I would want to end up here!"-

The PGY-1 experience features broad exposure to inpatient and emergency psychiatry across several different settings, as well as a foundation in general inpatient medicine and neurology.

Rotations

The intern year consists of 13 four-week rotation blocks.

Rotation

Blocks

Psychiatry

Central Regional Hospital inpatient

3 – 4

UNC inpatient units (Adolescent, Psychotic, Crisis)

3 – 4

UNC Emergency Department (Psychiatric)

1

Medicine

UNC Family Medicine

2

Central Regional Hospital

1 – 2

UNC Emergency Department (Medicine)

0 – 1

Neurology

UNC inpatient Neurology

1

CRH inpatient Psychiatry

Central Regional Hospital (CRH) is a free-standing state psychiatric hospital located in Butner, NC, where they treat a spectrum of psychiatric illnesses with particular attention to persons with severe persistent mental illness. The majority of the PGY-1 time is spent among the Acute Adult Units, which provide inpatient psychiatric care to patients age 18-64. Residents complete two to four weeks of night float at CRH throughout the year, where the intern is responsible for either managing floor calls or evaluating new admissions.

UNC inpatient Psychiatry

PGY-1 residents rotate on three of the seven inpatient units in the UNC Neurosciences Hospital, located within the UNC Hospitals complex in Chapel Hill: the Crisis Stabilization Unit; the Psychotic Disorders Unit; and the Adolescent Unit. Daily rounding and close supervision with teaching attendings is provided in all settings along with a team-based model that involves social work, case management, occupational therapy, physical therapy, pharmacy, and education plans when appropriate.

UNC Emergency Department (Psychiatric)

The Emergency Psychiatry Service is an interdisciplinary clinical learning assignment in the context of a general hospital medical/surgical emergency room. During this assignment (two 2-week blocks), the resident assumes full-time responsibility for the emergency care of patients presenting with psychiatric concerns, providing evaluation and assessment. Interns deal not only with medical colleagues and hospital staff, but with family members, police, and security personnel as well.

UNC Family Medicine

The UNC Family Medicine Department, ranked the #2 Family Medicine program in the country, admits both adult and pediatric patients from an extensive network of practitioners in North Carolina. Patients admitted to the service have a wide diversity of presentations and diagnoses, and an acuity comparable to that of an Internal Medicine service. On this rotation, interns function as family medicine practitioners and become integral members of the treatment team.

CRH Medicine

This assignment provides a unique perspective into the interaction between psychiatric and medical diagnoses. Residents acquire broad-based general medical training experience in the context of caring for medically-ill psychiatric patients at CRH. Interns spend time in the dedicated inpatient medical service integrating the basic principles of internal medicine in a psychiatric population with acute medical concerns.

UNC Neurology

On the Inpatient Neurology teaching service (two 2-week rotations), residents are exposed to a variety of neurologic illnesses and their neurobehavioral comorbidity and sequelae. The Neurology service is located within the UNC Neurosciences Hospital, the same building that houses all of the UNC Inpatient psychiatric units. Patients admitted to the service have a wide variety of presentations, facilitating a broad exposure to neurological diseases.

UNC Emergency Department (Medicine)

Interns may spend up to 1 block on Emergency Medicine in the Emergency Department at the UNC Hospitals campus. There are up to 19 shifts per block and include a mix of days and nights. Interns will not see any major traumas or psychiatric patients while on this block. interns are able to participate in simple procedures if desired, but may also defer to other Emergency Department providers.

Call Schedules

UNC Family Medicine: Two weeks per block is spent on days (six 12-hour shifts), and two weeks on night float (five 12-hour shifts), with no additional responsibilities.

UNC Emergency Department (Medicine): There are no responsibilities beyond the scheduled shifts.

CRH inpatient: Call is split between the 3 residents on day service on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri afternoons, and lasts until 8:00pm Monday – Thursday and 10:00pm on Friday. Some blocks, residents also spend 2 weeks during their block on night float. Those on only day float average 6 weekday calls per month, and those with night float blocks average 4 weekday calls during their 2 weeks on days. There is no call on weekends.

CRH Medicine: Interns have one weekday call (until 10:00pm) and one weekend day call per week (8:00am – 8:00pm). Residents do however have one Golden Weekend per block (no call).